


Miles Apart

by caz251



Series: Parallel Torchwoods Parallel Lives [3]
Category: Doctor Who (2005), Torchwood
Genre: Crossover, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-04
Updated: 2013-01-04
Packaged: 2017-11-23 15:19:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,667
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/623619
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/caz251/pseuds/caz251
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It would be their first anniversary, but both Jack and Ianto are miles apart. Written for schmoop_bingo Prompt: Anniversary – Miles Apart</p>
            </blockquote>





	Miles Apart

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own Torchwood or Doctor Who they belong to the BBC.

Ianto stared forlornly around his office as he thought about his partner, Captain Jack Harkness, the larger than life leader of Torchwood Cardiff. Today was their first year anniversary, a year ago today had been the first time that they had slept together, and he longed to see the other man on this day. It was impossible though, Jack was stuck in Cardiff with his team, most likely out chasing a weevil and he was stuck in his office in London. As the Head of the Torchwood Institute he couldn't just take time off to go on a trip to visit his lover, especially he wasn't just the 132 miles away that London was from Cardiff.

While today had been the anniversary of the day they first made love, tomorrow was the anniversary of the day that they were ripped from each other. The Battle of Canary Wharf had been the end for them even though he still thought of them as a couple. There was no real way for them to get together anymore; it had been hard enough to meet up when he was working under Yvonne Hartmann as they didn't want her to know that they were together as it was bound to cause problems for Ianto at work. Now however it was supposedly impossible, while he was in London and Jack in Cardiff, they weren't just separated by the border of England and Wales, but the border of universes.

Unfortunately the walls between the universes had closed and he was stuck in his own world while Jack was stuck in his. At least he knew that Jack was alright and that the other man had survived the invasion; that he would always survive. He had found out a lot about his lover from the archives that he had liberated from the hold of Torchwood London of the parallel universe, including the fact that the other man was unable to die. The Battle of Canary Wharf had been brutal and he at least had the relief that Jack was okay whereas as far as the other man was aware he had perished in the battle.

He had brought Rose on board with him at Torchwood to help them, but mainly so that they could help each other, and she had been a help to him, a great one. She had told him things about Jack that he had never known, once she had found out that Ianto knew him. It had been a week after she had returned from Norway that they had sat down to talk, she had wanted to speak with someone who knew what it was like to have to leave people behind. She was unaware that he had when he came back, but she thought he had done so to go on the mission.

Rose had been sure that he and Lisa were a couple and was completely surprised to find out that he was gay and had been with a man in her world that he had to leave behind. She was even more surprised to hear that it had been Captain Jack Harkness that he had been dating, and she began to fill him in on some of Jack's exploits from the past. She then explained what happened on the game station and the story of how Jack died and was reborn. Apparently the Doctor had taken the memory of what happened out of her mind, but when she became trapped in his world she began to dream.

Every night she would dream of the game station until she eventually had the full details of what happened. In the moment that she woke up from her dream with the full knowledge of what happened she was whole again, within that second she and the TARDIS were one with each other again. Her Jack as she called him would live a long life, longer than any before him, even the Time Lords. Dying but reviving, over and over again. Ianto didn't like to think of it really, that jack would live for an eternity; that he would live alone at times without people who cared for him, and he hated that the other man would forget him, if he hadn't done already.

Ianto glared at the files in front of him, it wasn't their faults, but if he hadn't had to sit in this office he could have found an anti-gravity clamp and stuck around in Torchwood Tower for the void to close and then wait for Jack to come rushing in like the big damn hero that he is. It wasn't to be though, he had responsibilities, and there was nothing that he could do now but think 'what if'. He just wished that he had some way of letting Jack know that he was alright.

~ 

Jack Harkness glared around at the people of Cardiff as they went about there day as if nothing was wrong, not even remembering the events of a year previously. A time when they had all been so excited over the ghosts of their loved ones returning to them, forgetting about living the present instead falling prey to the ideals of the past. He hadn't done so though, he had been completely against allowing the 'ghosts' into this world, and he had told Yvonne Hartmann exactly what he thought of her project. It had been on one of his frequent trips during that time that he first met Ianto Jones; a Junior Researcher that he knew didn't quite belong in Yvonne Hartmann's Torchwood.

The younger man was someone that he found he actually really liked despite his choice of employment, and they had gone out several times. He had even decided to take things slow with the other man instead of rushing everything and lasting one night. Although they hadn't been going out long he did feel strongly for the other man, it definitely wasn't love he knew that for sure, but at the same time it wasn't just lust. There was definitely something more to it than that; he did hold some affection for the other man.

They had only slept together the once, but it had been right between them and he hadn't been averse to continuing whatever it was that they had. That had been a year ago today, but since then there had been nothing, and it was all the fault of Yvonne Hartmann. The damn Cybermen and Daleks had taken Ianto away from him and it was all her fault; if she hadn't been so set on restoring the Empire everything would have been alright. It wasn't though, and thousands of people had died due to her quest, one of which was Ianto.

Jack hadn't believed that he was dead at first, sure he was on the list, but Ianto was resourceful, he was sure that the other man had escaped the madness somehow and was just biding his time to come to him. That couldn't be true though, it had been almost a full year since the battle and he hadn't seen Ianto since. The other man knew where he lived, but he hadn't appeared, he hadn't even returned to his flat. Jack had gone through the flat after the battle, hoping to find a contact number for anyone, his Torchwood file had very little personal information, but he didn't find anything like that.

Instead he found something that had puzzled him but hadn't got him any closer to finding the other man. He had found what looked like a Torchwood document, but it wasn't one that he had ever seen before, one between those at a Directorate level, something that Ianto should never have had. It seemed like a simple friendly memo between two Directors, talking about something called project parallel. He tried to find out what it was about, but in all the files that Toshiko had managed to recover from the Tower nothing mentioned project parallel. Jack couldn't help but wonder if Ianto had been holding out on him, keeping secrets from him, then he realised every time that he thought it that it was such a hypocritical thought.

From the CCTV footage that they had managed to recover from the Tower, Ianto had been with Rose, Mickey, Jackie and the Doctor and some other men, but what happened to them he was unsure. They had appeared to be heading back up towards Yvonne's office, but no CCTV could be recovered from there, it was one of the areas that took the most damage. Jack had wanted to meet the Doctor to find out what had happened to him, but now he also needed to know what happened in Torchwood Tower, especially as Rose, Mickey and Jackie's names were on the list of the dead alongside Ianto's.

He just hoped that they had gone off with the Doctor and it had only been about a day for them. He hoped that the Doctor had done it again; Rose had told him of the day that she was away with the Doctor having been a year. He hoped more than anything though that Ianto was alive, but it didn't seem likely anymore. If the other man was alive he would have come to see him by now, he was sure of it. It was completely unfair, while he hadn't been in love with the other man he knew that he had been getting there and while he couldn't have stayed with him forever at least he might have had a chance to say goodbye, something that had been ripped from him.

He couldn't help but wonder what would have happened if they had just stayed in bed after their night out and neither of them having gone to work, whether or not Ianto would still be with him. If this would have been an anniversary for them that they would have been together or whether they would have been miles apart like they were now.


End file.
